UN Climate Change Expert Says: Eat Less Meat!
- Topics:
- Blog, Food Policy & Politics, Meat Industry
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008, 9:40 AM
Taking a page out of our Take a Bite out of Climate Change playbook, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says tackling climate change through our diet choices is an easier adjustment to make than changing our modes of transportation, if we want to personally address global warming.
He told The Observer that we should each practice a non-meat diet at least one day a week, and then gradually reduce our meat intake over time.
(See #3 on our list Ten Ways to Take a Bite out of Climate Change.)
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that meat production is responsible for one fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that at the rate consumption is increasing we will double that production by 2050.
“In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing about reductions in a short period of time, it clearly is the most attractive opportunity,” Pachauri told The Observer. “Give up meat for one day [a week] initially, and decrease it from there.”
Pachauri also stressed that we need to make changes in every sector the economy in relation to climate change. Diet is just a starting point.
